Week 79: "I'll be home for Christmas"

Happy Monday!!

Thanks Mom for the package!!

So this week should be a busy one with packing and meetings and
interviews and invitations to baptism and miracles and lots and lots
of hugs...

Last week, I'm super sorry about the email! I accidentally hit send
too early then I guess the other email I sent afterwards to complete
the email didn't send :( I'm really sorry about that. I will try to
find it again and send it out.

I hope everyone got to watch the Christmas devotional! Those are
always very special. If you didn't get to watch, go to LDS.org! We
watched it at the Johanson's house with one of the less actives we are
teaching, Sister West! Jessica and her family were supposed to come
too but they decided just to watch it at home - they really enjoyed it
though! Jessica brought her 5 kids to church all by herself; she is
such an example to me. Oh how I love her and will miss her. She wants
so badly to be baptized and is willing to do everything in her power -
whatever it takes. Last Monday we got to do a little FHE with them and
while Sister Palmer taught Jessica about the Baptismal Interview
Questions, I got to teach the kids "I Am A Child of God". It was just
great. What wonderful simple truths that little song teaches us! They
loved it. We then performed it to Jessica and she loved it. The gospel
is sure for families. :)

iPads are a great teaching tool!!

Also on Monday! (Monday was very miraculous) we got in contact with Brittany!! Finally!! She was upset she missed her baptism, but she had been reading in the Book of Mormon and praying and still wants to be baptized. She came to church yesterday so this week will be full of us helping her prepare for THIS WEEKEND!!! We have lots to do, but we'll make it happen with the Lord's help. 

Tuesday and Wednesday were full of meetings....those are always good! 

Friday we had zone training and for my last one the zone leaders asked me to give a training on loving the Savior, loving our missions, and increasing faith. I was grateful to be able to share that passion with the other missionaries. I will miss being surrounded by missionaries constantly. There is just a special spirit that comes with that mantle and that calling. We truly are set apart to be representatives of our Lord, Jesus Christ. I think the spirit is just so strong in that company because we repent and use the Atonement every day. Always happy, never content :) I will miss them so dearly!!

Friday we also went on exchanges!! Sister Tafua came with me to Bel Aire and oh the miracles!!! We found 2 new families to teach!! We are excited to help them progress towards baptism :)

Last week we also started to teach a new family that hasn't been to church in a long time. They have let their doubts and uncertainties take them away from the living water of Jesus Christ and His restored Gospel. It broke my heart to see them struggle so much with their concerns. They have a desire to live the Gospel and teach their children, but they are held back by their doubts and they feel they just can't move on. It made me really ponder on the purpose of life. The purpose of existence in general...is to progress. God's plan for us is eternal progression. Damnation isn't necessarily hell fire and brimstone, but an inability to progress. I felt so strongly that this family is experiencing that: damnation in a sense that they aren't progressing. They're stuck. I just wanted to throw out every one liner from every conference talk ever: Choose to Believe! Doubt your Doubts before you Doubt your Faith! Don't chase shadows! Stay on the Old Ship Zion! Haha there's no where else to go. The truth is in Christ and His restored Church. 

Sunday was a day of tears and love and pictures with the members. I sure feel so blessed to have dear family in Kansas. 

I guess now is the time for sappiness, the reason for my lack of sleep in the past week... I don't have much to say. Well, no, I have a lot to say, just not the words to say it. I guess I can only express my deep and eternal gratitude to my Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ, for seeing fit in their love and mercy to call me on a mission. Every spiritual experience and every trial has been the greatest of miracles. I have come to love the doctrine of Christ: faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. I have felt the reality of the Son of God and His infinite Atonement and also the reality of the adversary and his temptations. 

This is His truth. I will forever be grateful for the permanent conversion that has taken place within my heart. I will serve Christ always. "My discipleship is settled!"

Well, I love you all :) thank you for joining me on this trip down the yellow brick road!! 

Many hugs and kisses! See you soon!

Con todo mi corazón y mi amor,

Hermana Shumway

The kids and I :) Jay'Lah, Justice, Justin, and Jamie
- not pictured: Josiah

Santa and the missionaries at the Ward Christmas Party.

Thanksgiving Skip-bo with the Johanson family!!
(Sorry for the throw-back-hehe)

I WILL :)

Week 77: ".....I only design thy dross to consume and they gold to refine."

Happy Thanksgiving from the heartland of Kansas!!!! 

Happy birthday to my dear sister, Carly!! Have an awesome day!

Thank you to mom and Sister Jarvis from Hugoton for the letters this week! I sure love ya :)

We had interviews with President Bell this week! My interview was great - those few moments with him have been such pivot points for me in my mission and therefore in my life. Since our last interview, because of his remarks and questions, i have analyzed my relationship with the Savior and my knowledge and love for Him have grown so much as I have sought Him out. This interview was very special to me as well because I expressed to President some of my confusion. At the beginning of my mission, I was definitely not humble, I had no idea what faith is, much less how to exercise it, and I didn't understand at all how to us the Atonement every day. But I saw success!! And then, when I finally feel like I understand all of those things, the results just aren't there. He helped me see that it requires way more faith to be diligent and obedient and live the gospel even when the blessings aren't there than it is to live the Gospel when they are. I am grateful for the life lessons the Lord is teaching me on my mission :) I get to choose to be happy and grateful regardless of the outcome! What a wonderful way to learn how to use the Atonement!! It was great :) 

The girls are not getting baptized this week :( they didn't come to church. They are very excited to be baptized so we are sure they will be on the 5th!

We saw a great miracle this week with one of our newer investigators, Anita! We were going along teaching her the restoration, it was difficult - she loves the Lord and she is quite the talker haha - when we were testifying of living prophets and apostles on the earth today I felt prompted to show her the picture of President Monson and the 12 apostles, something I don't usually do. she then told us about this program she watched on television of old white men. She said she felt the Spirit as they were talking and knew they were men called of God - she actually used the title "apostles"!!! We asked how long ago this was and she said a couple months ago and she's looked for the program since and hasn't found it!!! She totally watched general conference!!!!! It was amazing!! Right after that clicky moment I invited her to be baptized and after some more testifying, she accepted!! It was awesome :) so grateful for the Holy Ghost!! We met her husband a few days later and he totally reminds me of my dad so that made me love him a ton. He will be a great Ward Mission Leader once he's a member!!!

We got to practice teaching the restoration to member families this week. Wow, my testimony of the priesthood has sure been strengthened by their testimonies. I love these members so much!!! :D

Bronté returns home to California this week!!! Isn't that super crazy. She included this scripture in her email and it is just to perfect not to share again!!

Alma 26:37 "Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen"

Have a wonderful and grateful Thanksgiving!

I love you all so much! 

Con todo mi corazón y mi amor,

Hermana Shumway

Sent from the ❤️land

Week 76: "Dean likes beautiful things." :)

Hello Everyone!! Oh dear, another week has come and gone, can you
believe that?! I can't.

Kinda sad that my picture of the departures didn't get a reaction from
you, Mom. I was waiting for it! Haha

This past week was goooood. Got to do lots of work! And a few girls we
are teaching: Brittany, Ajaiah, and Contessia, came to church! That's
always a huge blessing. They are preparing to be baptized on the 28th.
We pray the mom gives them permission!!

This week Sister Palmer and I focused a lot on making commitments to
the Lord each morning, expecting specific blessings. Definitely
stretched us to increase our faith :) I have been pondering a lot on
God's will. I truly desire to be aligned with Him always. But I have
to know His will before I do it! Haha so that was definitely a cause
for much reflection this week!

A couple miracles: one of our investigators, Jessica, progressed so
much this week! We set up a time to give her a church tour and she
invited her mom and aunt! They all came and expressed desires to
change their lives and come closer to Christ. The Spirit was truly the
teacher and they all accepted to be baptized on December 5!! Since,
they have kind of lost focus, so this week we will be workin hard to
help them be solidly committed to Christ to be baptized! They'll get
there :) the trial of faith has to come before the witness!!

Another miracle!! A family moved out of our ward, and when we were
saying bye to them we told them, acting in faith, that the family that
was moving into their house in their place was going to accept the
gospel. So we went by after they left to meet this new family and they
are interested!!! If people will just read the Book of Mormon...they
will know!! Everything goes downhill, even for members, when we stop
reading that book every day as we have been counseled and commanded to
do.

I love my calling! We got to help a lot of the Sisters in our zone
this week. I love being able to care for them and help them lose
themselves in the Lord's service - even though it can be so hard, it
is so worth it!

Well, I better sign off! I love you all so much and hope you have a
wonderful week!!

Con todo mi amor y mi corazón,

Hermana Shumway

This is Dean - whom the subject is referring to :)
haha when we were having dinner with his family,
his mom told us he's a smuggler...next thing I
 know he is climbing all over me trying to  sit
himself down in my lap! Hahaha it was soooo funny.
His mom came and took him away then a few minutes
 later he tried the same thing with Sister Palmer
and his brother just said matter-of-factly:
"Dean likes beautiful things." Oh it was so cute!!

The young women in the ward asked us to be a part of
their mutual activity! While the leaders were interviewing each
of them individually for personal progress, they asked us
questions about being a Sister Missionary! It was very fun :)
we were grateful to be able to share our testimonies
of the Gospel and love for the work with them!

Week 75:.....must press forward with a perfect brightness of hope.

HELLOOOOOOO from Wicheeta!

Last week was full of meetings and planning and preparing for meetings! So that's always fun :)
One of the highlights of the week was eating dinner with the Gonda family and their beautiful children!

Will - the boy on the left - drew this and said "this is you and me!" I just about died! Haha they are such an awesome family.

Now the news you have been waiting for: Kalimah did not get baptized. It's a very long story.....but the gist is that she spent some time with people that belong to another faith and they were somehow able to convince her in a few moments that she should attend church with them and that she shouldn't be baptized. It was quite the weekend. We did all we possibly could, but her decision was made and my heart was just very sad.
However, as I testified to her one night, I was just shaking with passion and I received a witness yet again of the reality of Jesus Christ and His Gospel, the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and that everyone MUST be baptized by the authority of Jesus Christ in order to receive all that the Father has. As I watched her receiving so much opposition, I just cried. It was like watching the war in heaven in real life and I just felt so small in the middle of it. It was wonderful to feel the peace of the Spirit as I turned to Christ for help. Choose the great Mediator!

Now the task on the daily is to find our Cornelius (Acts 10) we are making plans to make sure we are staying on top of it and doing this work in the Lord's way, applying the Lord's faith model in Luke 17 by expecting the impossible and doing more than what's expected - using the Atonement everyday. I know the Lord will work a miracle. All we need is to have faith sufficient for Him to work through us :)

A wonderful miracle did happen on Sunday! A super missionary minded member took us out to introduce us to some of her neighborhood "acquaintances" (yes, she has so much faith!!) and a family she introduced us to allowed us to come in, accepted a Book of Mormon and said they'd read it, and said we could come back! Yay! :) We are so grateful for the Lord's hand in this work! Oh how I love Him and desire to give all I am to Him.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Share your testimony with a friend :)

Con todo mi corazon y mi amor,

Hermana Shumway

My picture from Will :)

Look at all those birds!!

"End of life Planning Seminar"?? I'm in!! Haha!

MTC district!!!! Lots of months later.... Haha

List of departures....not on there!! :D
Prez said I could extend!!!

Just kidding.

Audrey's Homecoming!

We are anxiously awaiting Audrey's impending return, and would like to pass along the information of her homecoming report.

It will be Sunday, December 27th @ 9:00 AM, at the Wickenburg LDS Church Builidng.

The countdown is off by a day, she is getting home the 10th, not the 11th, but I'm not sure how to fix it without making a whole new one, so I'm just going to let it go. :)

We appreciate your support of Audrey during her mission, and hope to see all those that can make it at her homecoming!

Week 74: Growing Pains

Hey Fam and Friends!

So guess what! I totally forgot to tell you, but Elder Stevenson came

to our mission on Saturday and held a mission conference with all of

us!!! It was awesome :) I felt the Spirit sooooo strongly and he

seriously changed my life. So many of my questions were answered and

my testimony of preparation was strengthened so much. I love my

mission. As I was sitting there, reveling in the Spirit, I was

overwhelmed with gratitude for my mission. Words just can't express!

Tears can though! Haha I learned a ton about humility and vision and

the power of testimony. It was an amazing surprise to the mission - we

only knew he was coming like a week before! It was a great Halloween!

So transfers of course were last week. Lots of adjusting and

opportunities to grow! Sister Palmer and I are very different, she is

very sweet, understanding and loving and I am..... So anyway...

Definitely have different strengths! She will teach me a lot in the

next several weeks. It was really hard to say goodbye to some of my

best homies though. Shout out to Elder Riddle, Sister Bringhurst,

Elder Pututau, and a Elder Brown. Miss ya guys. All is well in the

HEARTLAND!!! I have felt great comfort in knowing Jesus Christ will

always be here with me :) I love Him!

We fasted with Kalimah yesterday! She is so excited to be baptized

this weekend! We love her so much! This week she even bore her

testimony to her friend!! It was awesome :)

Oh! Cool miracle! So we finally caught Toshjanae, an investigator who

was on date for baptism, at home on Friday! At first she was like "I

don't have time for this in my life, I don't want to talk to you." But

then we testified hard core and I reminded her of the spiritual

experiences we have had together and then she said "actually, you can

come by Sunday!" Yeah - miracle of the Atonement and the power of the

Spirit RIGHT in front of our faces. We walked away and the Spirit was

like "why did you not invite her to be baptized again...?" And I was

like. Oh snap. So I told Sister Palmer we had to go back and knock

again!! We did! And we invited her, cleared up some of her concerns,

invited her again, and she said yes!!! It was great. I am so grateful

for the Holy Ghost and His help :)

Ohhhh another cool miracle!! So we felt prompted Sunday morning as we

were praying to go visit a few referrals (a family) from an active

member before church. We went. And saw a miracle! Imagine that.

Miracles happen when we just listen to the Spirit y'all. Anywho. So we

went and knocked on their door and the dad, Thomas, was super excited

to let us in! He told us that he has been reading in the Book of

Mormon and loves his LDS friends and the LDS culture. We knew we had

to invite him to be baptized! We did and he accepted to be baptized

TODAY! Haha we were like....uhhhhh maybe on the 21st? :) he was like

"if that's what I need to do, that's what I need to do, and I need to

do it soon!!" It was awesome :) we are so grateful for miracles!!

So, I love you all! Happy November! Choose the Right. Happiness will follow :)

Con todo mi corazón y amor,

Hermana Shumway

Bye Sister Bringhurst....notice how I'm
ALWAYS in the passengers seat? ...... :|

Bateman Family!!

That awkward moment when....

Sister Palmer and I. #nofilter #canyoutell?

Taking out the new missionary and Sister Gonda!!! I got real
emotional when Sister Joyner was introducing the
Book of Mormon to someone....I LOVE THIS.
Brought back tender feelings of my first day!

Bowling for P-day!

Week 73: Believing IN Him vs Believing Him

Hello my people! Haha just kidding!

So I know you're all wondering how Kalimah's baptism went!! Some
events transpired....and her baptism has been postponed until November
7th!! She is doing well though, just a couple things to straighten
out. We went over to pick her up for a dinner appointment with a
member family and she had this on her door!!

Haha it's all good....

This week I have been pondering a lot the difference between believing IN Christ and believing Christ. Believing in Christ to me means that I believe in what He says, like He really can change lives, heal infirmities, and redeem us from sin. But for everyone else....not me. But believing Christ is believing He can do that for ME. He can change my heart and my nature. I pray to believe Him more and more every day.

I am grateful for this mission. I am grateful for the culture of faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement.

Transfers are this week.... Sister Bringhurst is heading to PRATT KANSAS!!!!! I will miss her so dearly. This last week we made a mutual binding commitment to Heavenly Father that we would talk to 10 new people every day and teach at least 4 new people lessons, asking the Lord that He would bless us with a family to teach! It was amazing to exercise our faith, some days even to the last possible moment, and know the Lord would keep His promise to us - and He did!!! I haven't met them yet, Sister Bringhurst met them while we were on exchanges, but the family sounds awesome!!!

The church is true. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and Jesus is the Christ.

I love you all so much! Have a great week.

Con todo mi corazón y mi amor,

Hermana Shumway

#nofilter :) It made us so happy :)

Then her son wouldn't take a picture with me :(

Week 72: Spilled Milk

Thanks Mom for the package!!! Thanks Cara and Kendon for the letters!!

Oh!!! Cara and Kendon!!! Congrats on the baby boy! He is going to be
so handsome! I loved all the pictures.

Soooo let me sum up. Real fast. Cuz emailing is getting less and less fun :)
Kalimah is getting baptized this weekend and she is so excited!!!! It
has been such a blessing to be able to teach her - seriously such a
miracle. Yesterday we went with a member and her to the Mission
President's Devotional. President Bell invited everyone to wake up
early every day to read the Book of Mormon - she texted us this
morning and told us she and Jayden prayed and read the Book of Mormon
together this morning!!! We can't wait for Saturday!!

We helped some members lay some sod, that was fun and dirty!!

Sisters Conference was last week and that was good - weird to be on
the training side and not the receiving side, but it was fun
regardless :) I'll attach a pic! ALL the Sisters in the mission came
into Wichita for it!! It was so fun to see all their faces. A great
guest speaker came and taught us about procuring, protecting and
preserving our testimonies, it was super awesome :)

It was a good week, lots of things learned and loved :)

I love you all! Have an awesome week!

Con todo mi corazón y mi amor,

Hermana Shumway

Miss Fred's mom!!

Sisters' Conference!

 Carving pumpkins for P-day.
P.S. I took breakfast on the go the day of Sisters'
conference and spilled my cereal in the car.
It has gotten kinda smelly.... :) haha sorry Sister Bringhurst!

Week 71: "I want Jesus!" - Jaden

Hello loving family and friends! This week flew by sooooo fast. Not

fair! Anyway, lots of miraculous things happened - the Lord really

made things happen cuz we had tons of meetings and not a lot of times,

but he sure consecrated the time we did have.

Happy Birthday Sister Seigfried!!

Thanks Mom and family for sending me all those cute notes from

reunion! I love them!

Shout out to my sibs: I would love a letter from each of you before my

mission ends. If that's possible, I would really love that! Thanks!

So the greatest miracle I want to share is the miracle of Kalimah! I

think I told you about her last week: a member brought her to general

conference on Sunday and this week's he has progressed so much!!!

She's getting baptized on the 24th and she's owning it!! She told so

many people at church yesterday about her baptism and she participated

in the classes like a member. She is so excited to be baptized and I

love her! She has a 3 year old son named Jaden and yesterday when we

were teaching her the restoration, the Spirit was super strong and her

son, who is a little crazy whispered "I want Jesus!" And we just

looked at him like..... What? :) just a few minutes prior I tried

distracting him by showing him pictures of Christ and I whispered just

the simple truths: that He knows him and loves him so much. Then a few

minutes after hearing those truths he said that - it was a tender

experience and brought Kalimah to tears. She has had soooo many

spiritual confirmations and it has been such a blessing to be there

with her during those confirmations. She says some pretty cool things

sometimes that really just hit us how prepared she totally is. It is

truly amazing!!

I love you all so much!! Have an amazing week!!

Con todo mi corazón y mi amor,

Hermana Shumway

MLC

Exchanges with the Pratt Sisters!! Sister Peterson and
Sister Tafua!! #prattskillinit

Weel 68: "Now....jump into my arms!!"

Hellooooooo from Kansas!!!!!

So this week was good as they all are as a missionary :) and all of
them forever after will be because missions don't end and we can
always be disciples of Christ!

For some reason a TON of people we met and taught this week got
anti-ed, meaning they "researched" the Church, found information they
didn't understand fully, then told us they didn't want us to come
back, EVEN THOUGH after we taught them the Restoration and had a
spiritual experience with them we TOLD them that Satan doesn't want
them to find the truth or have everlasting life or even just be happy
and will do all he can to turn them away from Christ's gospel by
putting doubts in their head through their "research" or friends
or....whatever and to make sure they ASK US if they have questions or
concerns and we can help them understand. None of them did that
though. :( a decision that will determine their destiny... So that was
way sad. But that just means there are lots more other people who can
and want to be baptized!!

This week we got new missionaries!!!! So Sister Bringhurst and I got
to take out a couple Sisters and get to WORK for a few hours!! The
goal was to help them invite someone to be baptized!! I was with
Sister Samani and it was so fun! I loved just getting to knock doors
and talk to everyone :)) I loved seeing all the miracles with a new
Sister and helping her have an awesome first day! It caused me to
reflect on my first day in Kansas....inviting someone to be baptized
and read the Book of Mormon at a gas station :) I still remember how
willing he was to follow Christ! Gas station contacting...always good
cuz the people can't go anywhere! Haha

A lot of the part member families we are working with... Don't get how
super important the Gospel is to live RIGHT NOW. So we had a couple
lessons with the member part of the part member families testifying
HARD CORE how time is running out and now is the time and day of their
salvation. I hope they felt the Spirit so we can teach their families
and help them progress.

Yesterday, we found another LOST SHEEP!!!! It was awesome! We met her
a few weeks ago and thought she was a potential investigator, but then
when we went to follow up with her yesterday, we were teaching her
about the story of the Book of Mormon and when Jesus Christ came and
taught the people in the Americas and she was super excited to read
it! Then I told her how baptism is so important to Jesus Christ, that
was the first thing he taught to the people here - ya know warming up
to the challenge for baptism - and she all of a sudden told us she was
baptized in the LDS church when she was 14!!!! We were like WHAT!?!
And she wants us to teach her kids!!! It was great :) I love it!

Anyway....missionary life is the best and I love it. And I love you.
And I love Jesus Christ.
The end!

Con todo mi corazón y mi amor,

Hermana Shumway


P.S. Happy Anniversary to Aaron and Alicia!! Love you guys!!

Sister Samani and I!!

Ward camp-out fun!! I love these people!!

#nofilter

Week 70: We Thank Thee, Oh God, for a Prophet!!

What's up from Wichita!!!

 I forgot to say thank you to Mom for sending me a post card last
 week!! I love that you're doing that :)

This week was super great! With lots of great things with of course
some disappointing things. But the BEST thing was watching General
Conference and feeling the reality of the perfection of Jesus Christ's
Church on the Earth. Can you deny the confirming witness from the
Spirit that those men are called of God? Nope! I have never been more
excited to read and reread the talks!!

So on exchanges this week I was riding another Sister's bike and it
got STOLEN!! Yeah. That was a sad realization when we got out of the
appointment! Haha very interesting. No one wanted to hear from a girl
on a bike....that's fine. You'll just hear it on foot ;) haha

Talking about general conference and a living Prophet on the Earth
today definitely softened some hearts this week!! Especially with one
of our investigators named Marlo. When we first met her she
immediately told us she wasn't interested. We were in her neighborhood
again this past week when she just happened to step outside her home!
We followed up with the past commitment we extended and started
telling her about general conference!! She immediately opened up and
told us her life story of spiritual experiences and accepted a Book of
Mormon and wanted to learn more!!! She did watch some of conference
this weekend and we are excited to talk to her more!!

Super funny thing happened this week!! We went to dinner at a member's
elderly home apartment place and she paraded us all around the
cafeteria place introducing us to everyone and all her friends and
they were asking us all these questions about what we do and one of
them, Sue, came over to our table later and asked if we would come and
meet with her and answer some of her questions!! Who woulda thought!?
It was funny :) she read the Book of Mormon when she was 17!! I just
wanted to record our whole time there...it was pretty funny :)

Another miracle!! Before conference on Sunday we were feeling a little
discouraged with the lack of people desiring to progress and be
baptized. We said a prayer when we left the apartment just PLEADING
with the Lord to help us find the people who are prepared. We went and
saw someone we met the night before, and she had been reading in the
Book of Mormon and wants to know more and be baptized!!! It was
awesome. Total miracle and answer to prayer. That was really watered
down, but I promise it was such a tender mercy.

I love everything about this, with all the bitter and the sweet. :)

 Con todo mi amor y mi corazón,

Hermana Shumway

Oh snap!!! Another miracle! A member brought a friend to conference
and she LOVED IT!!! She felt the spirit strongly and knows those men
are called of God. Tender mercies all around even when things are
looking bleak. Faith in Jesus Christ is really all we need to take
part in the Lord's miracles. :) I love Him!

Zone conference.

Mom - isn't this awesome?!

We wrote a song last week! It's super good and everyone loves
it!! I'll send it soon.

Week 69: "He was kind of depressed.....so we taught him the Law of Chastity."

A missionary classic. Oh we laughed so hard!!! Hahahaha the Elders
said it was exactly what their investigator needed though!

Sooo this week in Kansas was awesome! We had zone conference on
Wednesday where I had to give my departing testimony cuuuuuz the next
zone conference is after I go home! So that was dumb! But good, I'm
sure it would have been way worse if I actually do go home soon. But
zone conference was sure awesome. I love learning from President Bell.
He is such an inspired man and I look up to him so much! He always
focuses on the Atonement and building faith in Christ. He is
definitely helping me lay a great foundation for life. My favorite
part of zone conference was when President and Sister Bell let us as
them questions about marriage and family. They set up a cute little
living room complete with a rug and a fake fireplace! (They are so
cute!) That was very insightful!

A really awesome thing we started doing this week is practicing
teaching on the members! So this is how it works. We go to their home,
they choose who they want to pretend to be (non members), pick their
situation (first visit or follow up visit) and then we teach them like
we would teach their friends!! It was miraculous and super edifying
for all!! It was so much easier to teach in a home where the Holy
Ghost already is!!! It was awesome for the members because afterwards
they felt so much more motivation to share the gospel with the people
they were acting as. We are going to keep doing it!!! One of the
members is actually setting up a dinner and lesson in their home with
us and their friends! Keep you posted on that!

Hey! Conference is this weekend!!!! 3 new apostles! It's going to be
crazy cool. We have an investigator named Cashley who is preparing to
be baptized on October 24th (he has been taught forever and finally
made a solid commitment to ACT!!!) told us that one thing he does not
like is that he has been in church for his whole life and he never
knew there was a prophet on the earth today until he came to the LDS
church. He was very upset about that! He thinks we should be talking
about that all the time! The whole world needs to know what a prophet
of God is saying!! So....because of Cashley, and for the sake of
others who feel as he does, invite a friend to listen to God's
ordained servants by watching General Conference this weekend! Do it
out of love and offer some food and they can't say no! Just kidding.
:) really. We all need to know how to prepare for the Second Coming of
Jesus Christ.

MIRACLES. Tons happened this week. One that stands out to me today is
Bertha! We taught Bertha the restoration on the doorstep and gave her
a Book of Mormon and invited her to read it and be baptized. We didn't
follow up for a long time because we wrote down her phone number
wrong! Finally we saw her again and she had read some and felt the
Spirit. Right then we invited her again to be baptized on a specific
date. She accepted and we told her what to do to prepare. She is
already living the commandments!!! We then invited her to pray about
the date specifically. She did and she said she felt joy and peace!!
It was a miracle! We love her and are excited to help her! And Cashley
(as mentioned above) accepted to be baptized next month too! He is
really expecting and looking forward to feeling the fire of the Holy
Ghost :) he knows his stuff!

Well family and friends. I love you and I love Kansas. And Oklahoma :) haha
I love being a missionary. This week I learned through exchanges with
Sister Furner that we don't really want to be confident....would you
describe the Savior as being confident? Yeah..that made us ponder a
lot. Our confidence should come from knowing who we are as Daughters
of God and knowing that because of that divine nature, our potential
is....limitless! Our confidence lies in knowing who we are and knowing
who Christ is. During Christ's 40 day fast, Satan's attacks were to
persuade Christ to deny His own divine nature. "If you are the Son of
God..." and he will try to get us to do the same. There is SO much
power in just knowing who we are.
Heavenly Father loves us.
Come listen to a prophet's voice this weekend :) and tell everyone
else to do so as well!!!

I lalalalalalovvvve you!!!

Con todo mi corazón y mi amor,

Hermana Shumway

Posterity pic!! Sister Rosell is training.

Went to McDonald's.....she ordered an oreo mcflurry....got
a frappe instead.....yeah. That's a bummer. Can't even give
it away!

I love Sister Furner!!!

Exchange lunch with the Newton Sisters!

Week 67: Faith and Patience......a little more inseparable than I thought

Exchanges in Newton!!!

Oh!!!!! Sarah and Stephen I am so sorry I forgot to wish you a happy birthday last week :( but happy birthday!!! I hope you had a great day!

SISTER MENDOZA IS AN STL!!!!!!!! :D!!!! Oh my heck she is such a good missionary and will help the other Sisters SOOOO much. I love her. 

Shoutout to Sister Dani Shumway and Sister Noheli Trejo who entered the MTC this week! Being a missionary is the best thing in the world. Such a privilege and a blessing. Your time is short, cherish it now and savor every moment as a representative of Christ. I LOVE YOU!!!

This week I pondered a lot about my relationship with Jesus Christ and my true motives for doing missionary work, why do I do what I do? I have been feeling a little separation from Him lately but I found so much comfort in the scriptures. Especially in 3 Nephi 22:7-8. Read it, it's AWESOME. I also read a talk called Lessons from Liberty Jail and was able to talk to Sister Furner (pictured above) a TON about the Atonement. I have been striving to use the Atonement to turn my good into better and become who the Lord needs me to be for the rest of my life. I pray I am changing to fulfill His plan! I feel like I am learning so much and experiencing so much and I love it!!!

Good news!!! Transfers are this week and I'm staying in Bel Aire with Sister Bringhurst!! We are really striving to strengthen each other's weaknesses. It's interesting because I see what she thinks are her weaknesses as strengths because they are qualities that I don't have them! Haha I know it's hard to understand, but we are going to be focusing on that a lot this transfer. 

The Lord showed us so many of His tender mercies this week. I learned that we can have so much faith in Jesus Christ and His power and His Atonement, but if we don't have the faith to be patient and trust in God's timing...we'll get real discouraged reeeeeal quick and then it's like we never had faith in the first place! 

Well, I love you so much and am grateful for your love and prayers!!!

Con todo mi amor y mi corazón,

Hermana Shumway

Bowling! Always quite the adventure, but SO worth it!!

An accidental dinner appointment. A
Cambodian soup with lots of seafood I'd
never heard of before......good thing I'm
adventurous with food!! And the thing
on the right is the dessert. It had sticky
rice on the outside and coconut on the
inside!!

Week 66: "Elders and Sisters, you are all STARS!!"

This week we spent a lot of time with part-member families. That is a
pretty self-explanatory term but it means that only part of the family
are members of the church!! We are excited to continue working with
them to help them progress towards the temple and eternal families!!
This week's goal is to introduce them to active members and get them
some solid fellowship to help them come back to reactivity!

This week was really enlightening. On Tuesday I had an awwwwesome
personal study that taught me soooo much about the character of Jesus
Christ. Elder Riddle, our district leader, invited us all to read John
15 for district meeting so I read that and I just happened to be in 3
Nephi 17 in my personal Book of Mormon study. It was incredible to
read them both together and I invite you all to do the same this
week!! I came to understand so much clearer the love and compassion of
Christ and how much He LOVES us and how He shows that love. I have
felt this week that my testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is
turning into conversion and it is truly what Lehi describes!!! Fruit
that exceeds everything in sweetness and brightness. I learned from
John 15 that we HAVE to be firmly attached to the Savior. He is the
vine, we are the branches and we cannot produce any fruit of
ourselves. Without Him we can do nothing and we will wither and die.
How can we possibly think sometimes that we don't need Him? Or His
gospel? How can we think we can survive without being firmly rooted in
Him? I know as we draw unto Him, He draws nearer unto us and we can
truly fulfill His plan.

We had Mission Leadership Council this week which is always fun :)
here's some pics of that!! The Leadership Council consists of
President and Sister Bell of course, the Assistants to the President,
then all the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders throughout the
mission! It is so fun and inspiring to be surrounded with the greatest
missionary minds once a month!!! Especially with some of my closest
friends :)

An awesome miracle from this week is that a man named Rey that I met while on exchanges with another Sister came to church now the Elders are teaching him!!!

Family and friends, I know Jesus Christ is our Redeemer. I know with more and more certainty each day that this IS His Gospel and His truth. He has restored all we need to receive eternal life. We cannot delay. There is no time to waste, there is no time to wait. That is Satan's plan! Time is running out! Let us be anxiously engaged. Let us do all we can to declare love and repentance to everyone around us, every minute of every day. There is no other way, but through Christ. Be saviors on Mount Zion!!! 

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!

Con todo mi corazón y mi amor,

Hermana Shumway

Labor Day breakfast with Sister Smith!

Mission Leadership Council.

Earlier in this day we saw a man whose shirt said "You can't
block my shine" so we ran with it. Haha